Keep Her Safe
by Mlle. Wilhemina Wonka
Summary: Tik-Tok's thoughts from the ornament room scene in Return to Oz. Based off of the movie with a touch of Ozma of Oz book influence.


Keep Her Safe

Keep Her Safe

By Ma-dam-o-selle Wil-he-min-a Won-ka

Auth-or's Note: In the o-rig-in-al book, Tik-Tok speaks like this, with his syll-a-bles sep-a-ra-ted like so. I have at-temp-ted to re-cre-ate this for his thought pro-cess in this sto-ry. Thank you kind-ly for rea-ding, and I hope that I do not cause a head-ache.

* * *

Keep her safe.

That was my pro-mise to her.

And e-ven in this I have failed her.

I am not a-live, and there-fore can-not feel. But ev-er since I was cre-a-ted, I have won-dered what it is like to feel e-mo-tions. I be-lieve that I have come as close as I can to feel-ing, and what I feel is de-feat.

I still have two guess-es re-maining, but the Nome King will sure-ly gain a new or-na-ment in me. Per-haps if I had asked Dor-o-thy to wind my think-ing a bit tight-er, I could guess bet-ter which forms her friends were giv-en. Un-for-tu-nate-ly, now it can-not be helped, and Dor-o-thy's jour-ney is for noth-ing.

Per-haps this chi-na stat-ue…

The strange un-der-ground thun-der app-ears to think I guessed wrong.

I have on-ly one guess re-main-ing.

I must not be so has-ty! I need to stop and think log-ic-al-ly, as I was de-signed to. It is no won-der hu-mans can-not think clear-ly with e-mo-tions.

I was built to think like a prob-lem-sol-ver, and so I will try to think as Jack and the Gump did when they took their turns guess-ing. Jack's think-ing is not diff-i-cult to im-i-tate, but the Gump's thoughts are prov-ing too diff-i-cult to de-ter-mine.

Per-haps I should try a diff-er-ent app-roach. What would a Pump-kin-head, a chi-cken, and a so-fa look like in or-na-ment form? Would they still be rec-og-niz-a-ble as friends?

This thought makes me won-der—when Dor-o-thy comes to guess, will she rec-og-nize me as her friend?

…Am I her friend?

…I real-ly do not know. I am not sure what be-ing a friend is like. I think, though…that I would like it if I were her friend.

This type of think-ing makes my steel brains hurt. I must con-cen-trate and think of a way to make my trans-for-ma-tion use-ful. Per-haps if I could some-how make Dor-o-thy come to me, she could watch what I trans-form in-to.

I will hold per-fect-ly still and hope that the Nome King will take pi-ty on me. Per-haps he will al-low Dor-o-thy to come and wind me.

And so I am hold-ing per-fect-ly still.

A-ha! O-ver there, one of the Nome King's min-ions has seen me.

Com-plete silence has nev-er be-fore both-ered me, but now I am count-ing off the sec-onds in the tick-ing of my clock-work as I wait.

My hand is fro-zen in mid-air. If I were hu-man, would not be a-ble to stand this long. But soon, after what was actually on-ly 316 sec-onds but felt like a much long-er time, I hear the soft and hes-i-tat-ing step that could be-long to no-bo-dy but Dor-o-thy.

A-no-ther 26 sec-onds pass be-fore I hear her again—this time she tim-id-ly calls my name. She must be dis-con-cert-ed by the e-cho from the walls of the orn-a-ment room.

Thank good-ness, I think she has spot-ted me. I can hear her foot-steps app-roach-ing.

"Tik-Tok!"

And here she is.

"Tik-tok!"

She walks a-round me and ex-a-mines me…I am sur-prised that she does not hear me tick-ing. She tries to wind me…

"Tik-tok, you're all wound up! What's the matter? Why did you stop?" she says.

"Shhh!" I whis-per, "It was my way of get-tin you in here. Pre-tend that you are wind-ing me up a-ny-way."

No Nome who watch-es Dor-o-thy would be fooled by her wind-ing, but it will have to suf-fice.

"I have an i-dea that may save us. I have one guess left, and if I guess in-cor-rect-ly, you can watch and see what I am changed in-to. That may give you a clue."

Thought-ful-ly she lis-tened. "What a good idea!" she says. She runs a-round to face me, and I am so a-shamed for fail-ing that I can bare-ly look her in the eye.

"My steel brains must be dam-aged, be-cause I am hav-ing diff-i-cul-ty guess-ing."

"Oh, Tik-tok…" she says, and then she does some-thing I would nev-er have ex-pect-ed…she hugs me.

She does not care that I have failed? But…why? Is this what friend-ship means?

…I think it is. I have nev-er been hugged be-fore.

And so I hug her back.

I am be-gin-ning once a-gain to ques-tion my e-mo-tion-less state. As Dor-o-thy lets go of me, I am so sad a-bout what may hap-pen to her. I hear the plip of some-thing li-quid falling on my cop-per chest.

"Oh, don't cry," she says. With a hand-ker-chief she wipes my tears a-way. I have nev-er cried be-fore, ei-ther. The look in Dor-o-thy's eyes tells me that she be-lieves in me, and, I hope, that she for-gives me for fail-ing. I feel my eyes well-ing up a-gain, but I force the tears back. Cry-ing will not help her now.

I step back and look a-round. That lit-tle cop-per vase—I will try that. I be-lieve that Dor-o-thy will be a-ble to guess cor-rect-ly if she watches me trans-form. I do not want to leave her a-lone, in case she meets with op-po-sit-ion, but I can help her more by guess-ing in-cor-rect-ly than by stay-ing with her.

"Rea-dy?" I say. She nods.

Do not wor-ry, Dor-o-thy, I will keep you safe.

"OZ!"

I see a flash of light-ning.

I re-mem-ber noth-ing else.


End file.
